Comparison Apples to oranges or Green/Blue/orange

[vtsnowedin]

Having just gone through the tractor shopping experience and using some of the available sources here at TBN & tractordata.com as well as several manufacturers web sites I have to say that what is available leaves something to be desired. It is very hard to research and compare tractors and their capabilities on a feature by feature basis. Look at tractor data .com you can look at one manufacturer at a time and sort by horse power but not by weight or wheel base. The data is not consistent or complete. It would be nice to sort by the things you want in a tractor from every model available. Sort by weight, horse power, rear hitch lift capacity, loader compatibility and lift capacity, cab or not, maximum and minimum tread width front and back and PTO speeds and power.
By the time you have specified out what you are looking for there should be a small group of tractors that qualify and you could get down to price and dealer rep. But as it is now I expect that some models that are competative with what I choose to buy never came to my attention while working through the maze of unsortable and incomparable data out there.
Don't get me wrong, it is a lot better then the days before the net when you were limited to print media and dealership brochures or the wisdom and honesty of your local tractor salesman. I just see lots of room for improvement that may well come about in the future.

 

[jenkinsph]

It seems to me that there is more information available than I wan't to read.:confused2:

 

[rekees4300]

I just see lots of room for improvement that may well come about in the future.

They don't make it easy do they? The folks who sell tractors still don't get it re the Internet.

 

[boggen]

it takes $$$ and time, to create a database, and then most likely getting operators manual or shop manuals for all tractors. and plugging everything in manually. it is ugly work to type everything in.

with tractors have multi options from engine size, to transmission types, to other, things can get blurred even further. and amount of data that needs to be inputed.

 

[vtsnowedin]

I realise the amount of work it would take to create a data base that was cross search able but once done it would be done and very useful and could be kept up just by adding new models as they come on line.
Of course manufactures will not want to publish their weak points but I'd think the competition would be glad to point them out.
On the Apples to Oranges side of it, one color makes machines with fifty HP engines that weigh in at 5100 lbs while another has theirs weigh 3616 and another 3860. might make a difference when holding back a load going down a steep slope. These same tractors have rear hitch capacities that range from 3300 to 1830 lbs and loader full height capacities of 3100 to 2400. Curiously they all (I'm looking at three I searched out what numbers I could find on) have 11.4 gallon per minute Hydraulic main pumps. Looks like a market in sub assemblies has been cornered.
Now I'm sure that most of these brands make a model with say 3300 rear hitch capacity and if you plugged that into your search you would get a different line up of competitors with varying horse power and other features.
Which feature to look at most closely is the question and I think PTO HP is given too much importance by many people and they lose site of how that power gets applied to the ground or through the implement.

 

[art]

I haven't checked lately but there were about 130 different tractor manufactuers in the world that are considered major or have a mark on a map. Then you have a list of company names that get attached to some manufactuers that of coarse is larger yet! Any successful model might last before a revision about four to five years. For some that aren't so successful they only last about two years maximum especially if it's a reliability issue.

I think someone might have a lot of work before them!

There is still more to tractors then just the basic specs as I've seen great variations and varied results depending on conditions. The specs are a great starting point for most but depending on the chores we find properly set-up tractors for the job make them perform better and last longer. We have seen in the farm tractors where improper set-up being just tire pressures and weight location the customer came from being extremely dissapointed to extremely satisfied. One of his questions was, How much did you do to the injection pump? We showed him the uncut seals! After a couple of days he also told us the fuel useage was cut a lot although he couldn't give an exact number.

This works with the compacts as well but it often is more amplified with the larger tractors.

 

[vtsnowedin]

I haven't checked lately but there were about 130 different tractor manufactuers in the world that are considered major or have a mark on a map. Then you have a list of company names that get attached to some manufactuers that of coarse is larger yet! Any successful model might last before a revision about four to five years. For some that aren't so successful they only last about two years maximum especially if it's a reliability issue.

I think someone might have a lot of work before them!....
....

Well you wouldn't have to get every tractor on the spread sheet all at once. The hard part would be filling out the top row and deciding what to include for your evaluations. Once you got the spread sheet set up and working so you could sort a few tractors then you could just add more lines as you came up with more models you had data on. I might get to it this winter when I have the time. I have to think about what things to include and how to deal with one piece of missing data on a given tractor. Could you have it still sort for that tractor except when you sorted by that data point?
Things I would sort for would be : Horse power, PTO HP. Base machine weight. working weight with loaded tires and loader attached, tire size, 3ph lift capacity, hydraulic pump capacity, number of rear remote valves, loader lift capacity, loader breakout force, loader and bucket weight, Wheel base. axle width front and rear, min and max.
I'd like to include draw bar pull but I might have to come up with a calculation subroutine to compute that approximately based on weight to HP ratios and tire size and type and how many are pulling 2wd vs. 4wd. Should kill a day or two this winter

 

[murphy1244]

tractor data.com did it. tractor house does some.